Woodworking

After my first job of creating for myself a bench to use to build some more complicated things out of wood I set about my first real project. I figured that a stool would be difficult enough to pose a challenge, yet simple enough that I’ll be able to achieve it.

The first job was to collect some wood to use.

I built it out of some hardwood house frame and sticks. There were a few things that I weren’t sure if I could do. Drilling straight holes for dowelling, and trimming back wood for round mortise and tenon joints. It turned it out that I had nothing to worry about. It all worked out more or less.

The top was put together with some dowels that run straight through the centre two planks and half way into the two side planks, then glued all together.

Drilling the holes in the seat to run the legs was a pain in the arse. Each hole took an hour to drill.

Next time when I cut the slots in the tops of the legs I need to make sure they don’t run parallel to the grain. I cracked the top slightly in my oversight.

The leg supports weren’t as much trouble as I figured they’d be either. I got a stick roughly the length I needed and used my draw knife to bring the ends down to the size of the drilled holes.

And this is what the finished stool looks like.

I learned a lot, and there are a lot of things that I’d do different next time. This job was mainly a test to see what my limits are. I might make another one with more of a focus on quality of the finished product and see how that goes. This one is pretty rough and is covered in pen marks and knocks.